Take a Melody
by nessonmain
Summary: I can only imagine what my face looked like, but it was probably hilariously confused. Or at least, it was before the lamp soared right at my neck. [A novelization of Mother. Rated T for violence. Updates sporadically.]
1. Broken Music Box

p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Hey. My name is Ninten. I know, I know, it's a weird name, but it's not like emI'm /emthe one who chose it. You can blame my parents for that. Anyway, I'm 12 years old and this is the story of how I saved the world./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"…What? You don't believe I saved the world? Oh yeah, right, emjust because I'm 12 I can't do cool stuff/em. Well, I really did save the world, whether you believe it or not./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Moving on. It all started when my lamp almost killed me. …emReally with the whole not believing me thing again? Come on. Just roll with it, I know it's weird./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I was just minding my own business that day. I had followed my typical routine: get up, not want to go to school, eat, go to school, walk my sisters home from school, and start on my homework. I'd been doing my math homework when I got hungry. I got up and was walking to the door when I suddenly got a feeling. A bad feeling. You know those vibes you get when you're watching a horror movie and you can tell something real bad is about to happen? Yeah, it was like that. My eyes flicked around the room as I turned around. My eyes zeroed in on my lamp. My trembling lamp. What? I pinched my arm to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Nope, this was all real. Suddenly, the lamp's power cord came out of the wall and the lamp started levitating. I can only imagine what my face looked like, but it was probably hilariously confused. Or at least, it was before the lamp soared right at my neck./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I dodged, stumbling. Jeez, that thing could've snapped my neck at the speed it was going. It almost did, to make things even worse. The thing was righting itself after almost ramming into the door, so I took that time to grab it (emjeez, that thing was hot/em) and hurl it at the wall. emSMASH. /emI sighed. Mom would have my head for this. Now that the thing was dead, I had some time to think about what the heck just happened./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"1.) My lamp came to life and attacked /2.) I almost /3.) I broke my /4.) This could be happening in other parts of the house too./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Wait, what was that last one again? Other parts of the house. I blanched. emMy sisters! /emThey were only 7, they couldn't defend themselves if something attacked them! I gritted my teeth and ran out the door, entering the first room to my right; Minnie's room. I was lovingly greeted by Minnie's shrieking and yet another lamp flying at me. I followed the same steps I took with the lamp from my room, except with a little less almost dying. emDodge, grab it, ignore my burning hands, and smash it./em The porcelain pieces fell to the floor./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Big bro…" I startled and whipped around when Minnie spoke up. "What's happening? Is the house falling apart? Is Mommy okay? Is Mimmie okay? I'm scared…" She babbled./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I walked over to where she was standing. She looked up at me when I knelt down in front of her and I put my hands on her shoulders. "Minnie, I really don't know what's going on right now," I felt bad when her expression dropped even more, but I didn't want to just lie to her, "But I'm gonna go check on Mom and Mimmie, okay? Now what I need you to do is stay here, and if anything else tries to hurt you, scream. I promise I'll come." emI have no idea where this sudden bravery came from, I still feel like I'm about to piss my pants./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"As soon as my younger sister nodded, I shot to my feet and took off running. The next room over wasn't far, but the less time I took, the better. I burst into the room to see Mimmie scrambling away from her doll. emUgh/em, I hate that thing. It was a hand-me-down from Mom, who got it from her mom, whose mom made it for her. I knew there was some sentimental value to it, but the doll always kind of… creeped me out. It was falling apart, its clothes were missing, and it was all around ratty. Welp, either way, that thing's gotta go now./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Mimmie turned her scared gaze to me, begging for help. I dashed in between my sister and the doll, hoping that things would turn out well like they did against the lamps. I started with a kick to the doll, flinging it a little ways across the room. It emwas /ema doll, after all. It rose up, hurtling toward me, but I jumped to the side, flailing my arms a bit to keep my balance when I landed. Turns out the thing had really poor motor control (is that how you'd put it?), as it almost rammed into the wall. I took the opportunity to rush over and grab it by its little socked feet (emhonestly, I'm surprised that those were the things that never got lost. You'd think that the socks would be the first to go, but no./em) and bash its head into the wall hard enough that the head popped clean off. The doll went limp – er, limper? – in my hands. I dropped its body and slumped down a bit, wishing that this was all a dream./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Then, for some reason, it seemed like something in the air evaporated. I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. My mind told me that it was the strange phenomenon ending, and I wanted to say something along the lines of emHow the heck did you get to that conclusion? /embut Mimmie was staring right at me and I didn't want to make my sister think I'd gone mad, so I just rolled with the punches and hoped my mind was right. Mimmie looked away from me, instead staring at the doll's head that was a few feet away from her. Then she looked back at me. Then back at the head. Her eyes flickered between us for a moment, before her eyes widened and she looked back at me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Ninten! I think there's something inside it!" emWell, at least she's taking it better than I expected/em. I walked over to the doll's head, crouching down and grabbing it carefully. I peered inside of it and I could make out the shape of a little box. I reached in and grabbed it; pulling it into the light, I could see that it was a small wooden box with a small indent on the sides. There were hinges on the back, and a rusty key on the side to wind it up. I figured, emhey, why not/em, and turned the key a few times (emby which I mean 10/em) before opening the box. When I opened it, a tune started to play as a small figure of a woman in a dress spun slowly. The music stopped after five notes, but the woman kept spinning. I tilted my head in confusion, replaying the five notes in my mind./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Huh, guess it's busted," I said, looking up at Mimmie only to see her wide eyes looking back at me. "Sorry, Mim. I'm gonna go check on Mom, okay?" My sister nodded and I stood up. She huffed when I ruffled her hair as I walked by to set the music box on her dresser./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"As I was about to walk out into the hall, Mimmie said, "hey, Ninten?" I looked back at her with a quirked eyebrow. "Thanks for saving me, but…" She trailed off, smirking a little, "I'm gonna tell Mommy you broke my dolly."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I just stared at her for a moment. emReally? This is what your brain latches onto after all this, Mimmie/em? I sighed and turned, walking out the door, knowing that there's no changing her mind when she decides on something. She's stubborn like that. As I trotted down the stairs, I just couldn't get those five notes out of my mind. I felt like they were important for some weird reason./p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The part of my mind that had talked to me earlier sung quietly. "emTake a melody…/em" This time, I wasn't inclined to say anything in response. After all, the tune was very nice. My lips quirked into a small smile as I sang along to my mind's lyrics under my breath./p  
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongEdit (1-21-19): Decided to remove the prologue entirely. I felt it too short and generally unnecessary for the story./strong/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongThank you for reading! Please point out any mistakes in the reviews./strong/p  
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"emstrongDisclaimer: MOTHER/Earthbound Zero/Earthbound Beginnings belongs to Nintendo/Shigesato Itoi./strong/em/span/p 


	2. Cold, Dark, and Dusty

The first thing I saw when I walked into the living room was my mom, her back to the front door, a grim expression on her face. Her eyes lightened when she saw me, and she rushed over to me. "Ninten, honey! Are you alright?" She cried, her heels clicking against the hard wood floor.

I couldn't bring myself to do anything but stare. My brain had been on hyperdrive before, but now that I knew she was okay, the fight seemed to leave my body in an instant. I shrugged, wiping away the sweat forming on my forehead. I guess she somehow knew that I felt just a tad bit stressed out of my mind. Was it showing on my face, or was it her superior mom instincts? Either way, she swept me up into a hug; I buried my face into her shoulder, and I could feel her leaning her head against mine. There were tears starting to sprout up in my eyes, and her arms tightened around me.

"Ninten, could you tell me what happened?" She asked softly. I murmured the events of the past ten minutes to her, feeling silly. It felt more like I was telling her about the plot of a cartoon, and a small part of me couldn't help but be scared that she wouldn't believe me. But all she did was rub circles into my back and whisper to me, "I'm so glad you're okay."

I couldn't help but want the hug to last forever, but then the annoying screeching of the phone rang throughout the apartment. She pulled away and gave my hair a quick ruffle, and asked if I could get the phone while she went and checked on Mimmie and Minnie. I nodded, patting my hair back down and walking over to the landline.

I took a deep breath and picked up the receiver. Willing the shakiness out of my voice, I said a quick "hello?"

The words I heard next were like music to my ears – "Ninten? Is that you? It's your dad," – or, to be specific, it was the voice that sent relief flooding through my body. I couldn't have cared less what the words were, just that my dad was the one saying them was enough.

"Dad? Hey, great timing. Um," I paused and glanced over at the staircase, wondering if I should get Mom so she can explain the situation. She'd probably do a heck of a lot better job at it than I ever could. Dad must've picked up on _something_ in my voice – again, is it just something about parents or am I just _that_ transparent? – because then he softly prompted me for more. "We've got a bit of a, er, situation going on here." I relayed the story a second time, feeling twice as silly now that I've calmed down.

He hummed once I finished, and then he said something that really shouldn't have startled me as much as it did. "Sounds like a poltergeist of some sort. I'm not really sure what to do about it either. Sorry bud," I didn't even try to hold back the disappointed sigh, but he rushed on ahead. "But your great grandfather did study this type of power; it's called something like sigh? I'm not so sure, I was never that interested in the stuff. Either way, some of his stuff's in the basement. Maybe you should give it a look?"

Putting the remark about _sigh_ aside (there's no way that's what it's called), I quickly asked where the basement key is – I've never been allowed down there before and the door's been locked as long as I can remember. All I got back was silence, then a quiet and ashamed "I don't quite remember." I rolled my eyes; just my luck. Thanking him nonetheless, I got off the phone with dad. I surveyed the living room, sagging a little when I realized just how much ground I had to cover.

I started with the tables and drawers, but then I heard a scratching at the door. I turned to the door, and hefted myself up from where I was crouching and opened the door. My beloved old dog, Mick, stood there, looking up at me with a wagging tail. I smiled at him and leaned down to scratch him just above his ears like I knew he loved. Then, I heard a voice.

"Hey, Ninten? You gotta get down into the basement, right? You should check my collar!" The voice was gruff and excited, but one that was entirely unfamiliar to me. I stopped my petting, turning to survey the outside to see if there was anyone around. "Hey, what'd you stop petting for? You know I love that stuff!" I looked down at Mick, his puppy dog eyes looking back at me. Returning to my petting, his tail thumped against the ground as I grabbed at his collar. Right there, hanging from his collar, was a slightly rusted key. I had absolutely no idea how he was talking to me, nor how he knew that I needed the key to begin with, but hey, I can freak out about this whole thing later. I'm a bit busy at the moment. Giving Mick's head one last ruffle, I fumbled around until I finally got the key unhooked from the collar.

I planted a kiss on his head before standing up and walking over to the basement door. Trying to steel my nerves, I put the key in the lock and turned slowly. I slid the door open after I heard the lock click, the neglected hinges screeching in pain for the first time in who knows how long. The staircase down was only lit up so much, and as I made my way down them, I held onto the stone wall so I wouldn't fall as it got darker. My cautious steps were as quick as I could manage without stumbling, but it felt like the staircase would go on forever. Just as I was about to start getting seriously scared, there, in front of me, was a door. I could just barely make it out as my eyes were still struggling to adjust to the dark. I quickly went down the last few steps and grabbed onto the handle, flinching at how freezing the metal was against my bare skin, and I opened the door quickly, desperate to get out of the stairway.

I sagged in disappointment when the room behind the door was just as dark as the stairway, if not even darker. I immediately reached for the wall, flailing until I found a switch. Thanking my lucky stars, I flipped the light switch. There was nothing for a solid 30 seconds, and just as I was about to give up, a dim, flickering lightbulb turned on, barely lighting up the room at all. It didn't give me much to work with, considering that it was still extremely dark, but I was grateful regardless.

The basement was remarkably empty. There were cobwebs strewn about in every place possible. A cockroach skittered by my socked foot, and I took a startled step back. My eyes followed the insect just long enough to see it run into a spider. I looked away, not wanting to know who would win in that battle. I'd much rather get what I needed and get lost. I spied a cardboard box sitting next to what used to be a loaf of bread. I shuffled over to the box, dropped into a crouch, and peered inside. A bunch of random knick-knacks that I had no clue as to what they were lay inside, alongside a dusty old book. I picked up the book by its leather cover, held it as far away from my face as I could, and brushed off the dust. I could feel my lungs constricting despite my efforts, and I knew I had to get out of this dusty hell. I took one last cursory glance around the room, and my gaze fell onto an old looking baseball bat.

I walked over to it, and picked it up. After a quick look over the bat, I noticed there were several cracks in the thing, but that little voice in my head was telling me that it was better than nothing, so I held onto it anyways. I couldn't keep myself from coughing as I hurried out of the basement, flipping the light back off on my way out. I had to walk even slower up the stairs than I had on the way down, now that both of my hands were full. But, this time, there was a light I was steadily making my way towards, and a sense of relief grew stronger with every step I took closer to the living room. Then, a figure stepped into the open doorway and my relief gave way to guilt. Mom stood, hands on hips, a disapproving expression on her face and her hands on her hips.

I could feel a sheepish grin stretch my face uncomfortably. "Mom, I, I – um," I stuttered out before taking a moment to calm myself, because, I'll be honest, I sounded kind of stupid. "I swear there's a reason I was—" I started, but I was interrupted before I could finish.

" _Ninten_ ," her voice left no room for argument, and I started sweating right there and then, "you've never been allowed in that room since you were born. Would you mind explaining _why_ , exactly, you went into the basement and how you got the key in the first place?"

 _Crap_.

My eyes darted around the room, and I struggled to find a suitable answer that wouldn't get me in too much trouble. Every time I glanced over Mom's face, her expression seemed to get more and more stern. I knew time was running out so I blurted out, all in one breath, "Dad told me that there was some stuff in the basement that might be related to the poltergeist-thingy that was going on earlier and then I found the key on Mick's collar!" My lungs were hungry for air by the time I finished my run-on sentence, and I gladly fed them while staring at my mom, hoping the explanation would satisfy her. Her face twisted and she shifted her glare over to the phone, probably wishing that it was Dad instead of, well, a phone. I winced and hoped that I would remember to say sorry to him later.

I inched towards the stairs, hoping if I went slow enough I could escape her wrath for now, but her head zipped toward me when I moved. She heaved a defeated sigh. "What did you take, then?"

I held up the book and the bat. "I found this book and, well, I don't know, I guess it felt important somehow. This bat, too."

She looked over the items, her eyes staying locked on the book for what felt like forever. Then, finally, she looked back at me and said, "Just… ask next time, alright?"

I nodded frantically, utterly relieved to be out of the line of fire, and took off upstairs with a quick "I'll be in my room!" called over my shoulder. After kicking my bedroom door shut behind me, I dropped the bat on the floor and plopped onto my bed, opening up the book. My smile faltered as I laid eyes on the first page, and I flipped through the pages with fervor. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Finally, I flipped it closed, flopping onto my back with a pout and a groan. I couldn't make out a word in the book.

 _There's no way. There must be something._

I grumbled out a complaint along the lines of "I don't care, disembodied voice! Let me be dramatic, please, I've had a long day and I. Need. This." I will neither confirm nor deny whether that's what I actually said. That's for me to know and for you to (hopefully) never find out. _Anyways_ , the voice in my head continued, telling me to check the book again, and I eventually sat up with a whine. Reaching back over for the book, I resumed (what I thought was) my fruitless search.

 _Unreadable. Incoherent. Nonsense. Actual words. Unreadable. Unreadable._

My eyes widened when it registered what I just saw, and I flipped back to the single readable page. The words on it were hastily scribbled and looked like chicken scratch, and made no sense whatsoever.

" _The password…_

 _Where is the god's tail, that which was left behind by the ship that soars the heavens?"_

I stared blankly at the page, and slowly shut the book and set it on my bedside table. I sagged, laying down on my stomach and burying my face into my pillow. Of course the only coherent words in the book were incoherent in their own way. Just my luck. I tried to push the book from my thoughts, settling down to sneak in a quick nap before dinner, but no matter what, the words wouldn't leave me alone. The lost god's tail followed me into my dreams.

* * *

 **So, uh, hey there! Haven't written for this story in, what, 7 months? Yeah, you could say I took a hiatus to work on my own original story. But, finally, I've gotten off my ass and started writing again! And, gosh, I forgot how much fun it is. Hopefully I'll be updating a lot more soon, but no promises.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and please point out any typos to me!**


	3. Zombies Are Real (Apparently)

Leaving the house was like a breath of fresh air, but my mind kept wandering to the diary sitting at the bottom of my mostly empty backpack. Shaking the thought out of my mind for the fifth time, I quickened my pace. The faster I got to town, the faster I can get yesterday out of my mind. There's usually _something_ weird going on in Podunk, so I figured I could find something mundane to do to distract me.

Turns out that it was my lucky day, because it was right then that I found Mrs. Lindgren pacing in front of her house, fanning her face with her hand. Now, you gotta understand, this woman is the most over dramatic person I've ever met. She says 'oh me oh my' when she's panicked. No one actually does that, but this woman somehow does it with complete seriousness. Normally I'd ignore her - she does this at least once a week over things far too simple, even for me - but she didn't usually have tears running down her face. Maybe something _was_ up.

"Uh, Mrs. Lindgren? Is there… something wrong?"

" _Yes_! Yes, something's very, very wrong!" She sobbed out, and I couldn't help but flinch. Jeez, comforting crying people really isn't my forte, huh? "I can't find Pippi anywhere! Have you seen her?"

"No, ma'am, I have-"

"Well then, you're going into town, right? Could you please tell the mayor?" She interrupted. I sighed - I tended to avoid talking to the mayor as much as I could, but I didn't think she'd let me say no, so I nodded. Unfortunately, she started to sob again, so I walked away as smoothly as I could, not wanting to be in that conversation any longer.

Walking into town took just as long as it always did, and I made a beeline for the town hall so I could get it over with. Waving to the receptionist, I headed up the stairs. The mayor wasn't busy. He never was. His face brightened as soon as he saw me. This can't be good.

"Ah, Ninten, my good friend! How are you, how's school?" He gave me his best cheesy grin.

"School's fine, sir."

"Is it? Great! Well, you're probably bored because there's no school today, right? Great! I've got just the thing to cure that boredom! Ya see, buddy, a child has gone and wandered into the cemetery, and we can't just let them rot in there. People say it's getting real dangerous out there lately - a few folks have even come in reporting _zombies_. Zombies! I doubt there's such a thing, but it'd be best if we got the kid out of there before anyone notices. And that, my boy, is where you come in. Would you mind getting her for me?"

"Well, actually, sir-"

"You will? Oh, great! Of course, I _would_ follow you, but I'm just so busy that I just don't have the time!" Really? What was with adults and interrupting me today? And busy? Yeah right.

 _Whatever_. At least it's something to do.

* * *

Watching as a rotting hand broke out of the earth, I felt like a rock had caught in my throat. As I let the dread creep over me, I noticed the hand was struggling to get a grip on the dirt, presumably to pull the rest of itself up. So, I did the first thing that came to mind - I stomped on the hand as hard as I could and made a break for the crypt. Pippi had always liked to be in the creepiest place possible.

A low moan came from behind me as I ran off, and I prayed that it was just the wind tricking my ears. That couldn't have been real. I must've been seeing things. There's just no way that zombies exist.

And I held out that hope until another hand popped up in front of me. Okay, I _guess_ zombies are real. That revelation didn't mean I had to stop for them, though. I kept my pace steady. (It's just like in baseball, Ninten. Not that hard.)

After making my way down the crypt's ladder, I stopped for the first time in what felt like forever. I sat on the ground, scrambling to get my backpack off so I could get my inhaler.

Zombies. Why'd it have to be zombies.

I sat for a minute, catching my breath and letting the whole zombies issue sink in. But, I couldn't just sit forever, so I eventually picked myself up and started down the stairs into the crypt.

Picture four coffins in a room, all shaking ominously. Three of them have zombie-esque groans coming from them. The fourth is silent, other than the occasional snicker. Which coffin do you open?

Well, I, like any sensible person, opened the fourth, and found exactly what I expected. Inside the coffin was Pippi, hands clapped over her mouth in an effort to keep from laughing. Her face darkened when she saw me, her hands dropping from her face as she pouted.

"Aw, Ninten, why'd ya have to ruin it?" She crossed her arms, glaring up at me. "Whaddaya want?"

"Well _hello_ to you too, Pippi. The mayor's making me get you out of here. C'mon, get up, we're getting out of here." I grabbed her by the arm and hauled her onto her feet.

She heaved a sigh, wrenching her arm out of my hand. " _Fiiine._ Let's go."

Pippi started towards the door, her stride confident. Or, it was at first, but I could tell when the atmosphere combined with the zombie's noises got to her, as her steps faltered and she glanced at the coffins nervously. At the doorway, she paused, turning back towards me. "You're older than me, so _you_ should go first."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." I muttered as I stepped in front of her to open the door. We made our way out of the crypt and through the maze of gravestones (seriously, there's just no order to these things, huh?) until Pippi shrieked. She promptly cleared her throat and tried to pretend like she hadn't, but I was too busy staring at what she had seen. It was a zombie, that much was obvious, but the thing that got me staring was its outfit. It was dressed like it was in the _mafia._

I'm pretty used to strange things, but mafia zombies was not exactly something I was prepared for.

While I was busy trying to get over this zombie's ridiculous outfit, I guess Pippi managed to steel her nerves, because the next thing I knew, she was barreling towards the thing with a war cry and suckerpunched it right in the gut. (Wait, do zombies have guts?) _Well, dang, does she even need me to do anything here?_

Despite the fact that Pippi could probably take care of the zombie with her fists alone, I grabbed the bat from my backpack, ran over, and swung as hard as I could. The zombie's head flew off its shoulders completely and cleanly, landing on the dirt with a squelch. _Gross…_

Pippi watched the whole thing with a growing grin on her face. "Alright, zombies! Who wants some!" She yelled, her voice shrill and her face bloodthirsty as she raced ahead.

"Pippi, wait!" I had to break into a run to even keep her in my line of sight. Unfortunately for me, she used her lead on me to suckerpunch another zombie.

Well, I guess there's nothing left to do but kick some zombie ass.

* * *

"Now, Pippi, make sure your mother knows the mayor rescued you, okay?" The mayor tried to wink at her conspiratorially, but ended up looking like his face was spasming. He shoved a 100 dollar bill into my hand and said, "Say, Ninten, you did such a good job with this job, why don't you help me out with the zoo problem too? Ya know, since you're here and everything."

"Well, sir, I was hoping to-"

"Oh, you'll go check it out? Wonderful! Abbott, how 'bout you give this lad a key to the zoo?" The mayor interrupted, sounding overjoyed.

His assistant, apparently named Abbott, opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a key, placing it on the desk. Before I could go and grab it, Pippi tugged on my arm. "Ninten, I want you to have this," she said, holding out a small badge with a lightning bolt on it. "My mom says Ben Franklin used this badge, so I call it a Franklin badge. I dunno if it does anything special, but maybe it'll help you at the zoo or something."

I couldn't hold back a snort as I took the badge and tucked it in my pocket. The word 'thanks' really isn't in her dictionary, huh? "Thanks, Pippi, I'll hold onto it."

"Yeah, you better!" She grumbled as I patted her shoulder and stepped over to grab the zoo key. I nodded at Abbott, waved at Pippi, and ignored the mayor as I left the room. Exiting the town hall, I sighed. I don't even know what the zoo problem is.

I didn't even consider trying to ask around before I walked into the department store to poke around. Hey, the mayor never said I had to go to the zoo _now_ , right?

* * *

 **oh jeez hello? i'm back? just wanted to say a big sorry for not updating in nearly a year. i had a good chunk written but i lost that file when i changed computers and i never restarted this chapter until this week. anyways, next update shouldn't take too long for me to write! sorry that there wasn't a lot going on in this one, but the next one should have more going on. as always, please point out any mistakes so i can fix them!**


	4. Canaries, Tigers, and Starmen, oh my!

**content warning: a small section in this chapter gets kind of... bloody. and a little gross. it's really short, though.**

* * *

I stared at the small ball of fluff in my hands. It chirped.

The second I'd walked into the pet shop in the department store, the clerk had forced the baby canary into my hands, asking me to pay 85 dollars for it. Naturally, I said no, because I didn't even want the bird in the first place, but he shoved the bird into my chest and refused to pull away until I had taken it. He then promptly began to ignore my efforts to hand back the bird, and, eventually, I just gave up on trying and left the store with a bird in hand.

But what the heck was I supposed to do with a canary? I certainly couldn't take it home - Mick would probably end up eating the thing!

After giving it a moment of thought, it came to me - the Canary Village (or, was it Canary Town?) just outside of Podunk. No one ever goes there except the guy who takes care of the canaries that live there, and I'd never stepped foot in there in my life, but surely they won't mind taking another chick into their hands.

Funny that I just so happened to be given the one kind of animal I would have an easy time finding a new home for, right? (Wait, no, that's just kind of weird.)

Pushing the odd coincidence out of my mind, I set off for Canary Town (actually, it might've been a village).

Well, I would've, but it was precisely that moment that I managed to trip over my own feet and perform a marvelous faceplant, sending the canary into a fit of panicked peeping.

What an amazing start.

* * *

 _Canary Village ahead - Let's nurture nature, together!_

"Aha! It _was_ a village! I was right the first time!" I declared, crossing my arms smugly. _Maybe_ it wasn't really something to be proud about, but I had passed the turn to the village and hadn't realized until I was coming up on Pippi's house, so at that point I was taking every victory I could get.

The path from the sign to the actual place it was advertising wasn't really that long, but the fact that it was crawling with oddly large bipedal centipedes wearing gloves made it a little more stressful than it should've been. More so because I was desperately trying to avoid freaking out over the far too large centipedes ( _wearing gloves?_ ) than because they were actual threats. I _did_ have to place the canary on my head so I could hold my bat to fight, but the little thing seemed pretty happy up there, so as long as I ignored how dumb I must've looked, everything worked out.

The Canary Village itself was practically a maze, though. It took me longer than expected to make my way through the trees before I found the caretaker, who took one glance at me, focused on the chick on my head, and told me to go find Laura the songbird. Where said Laura _was_ , however, was something he did not know, so I made my way back through the trees, asking every bird I came across if they were Laura, all the while feeling extremely silly for talking to birds who did not respond in any way, shape, or form other than blankly staring at me.

After wandering around and generally making a fool of myself for several minutes straight, I finally spotted a hole in the stone wall, had a very quick argument with myself that I resolved with the ultimate wisdom of _hey, why the heck not_ , and marched right through the hole to find... yet another identical bird.

I sighed, resigning myself to my fate. "So, uh… are _you_ Laura?"

The bird looked right up at me, blinked, and squawked, "Yup, I'm Laura."

(Well, _okay_ , I wasn't actually expecting you to answer, but I guess that's fine too.)

"Okay, um, the caretaker told me to come see you, so," I crouched down in front of her and gently scooped the chick from off my head. Holding it out for her to see, I said, "I think this is yours?"

"Yes! Yes, that's mine!" Laura chirped happily as the canary hopped down to nestle itself under her wing. She sung a short, sweet little tune that felt strangely familiar to me as I watched mother and child reunite.

 _Simple as can be…_

(Oh, hey, voice in my head. Nice to see you too.)

* * *

"Well, isn't this place cheery?" I muttered, frowning up at the gates of the zoo. The zoo itself hadn't been too far away from the village, although I did have a run-in with a pitchfork wielding man that I would rather not recount, as it largely involved very pointy objects very close to my very delicate, 12 year old body. So if we could move on from the subject, I think I would very much appreciate it.

...Sorry. What was I saying again?

Oh, right, the zoo. My bad. So, you'd expect a zoo to be pretty cheerful, right? Yeah, well, this place wasn't. Like, at all. In fact, it was pretty much the exact opposite. The grass was browning, the animals were out and about, the gates were rusting. It didn't look like it had seen proper upkeep in years, and the animals looked like they hadn't been fed in weeks.

It was at that precise moment that it sunk in that I was going to be stepping into a zoo full of hungry animals that were probably rather unhappy with humans for leaving them to starve. It was also at that precise moment I decided I wanted to go home.

Begging my legs to stop shaking beneath me, I took a deep breath, did my best to steel my nerves, and stepped towards the gate.

The closer I got, the more I had to force myself to keep going. My hand was buried in my pocket, fingers clenched around the key in an attempt to remind myself why I was doing this - although, reminding myself that the mayor had forced me into this hadn't really helped in the long run, so I'm not really sure what I was thinking.

Somehow, I managed to reach the gate without running away like a pansy. Planting myself in front of the gate, I pulled out the key from my pocket, making to unlock the gate with trembling hands. But, just before I could, a chittering noise from my left pierced the silence. I flailed my arms wildly in response, not registering the key falling to the ground in favor of staring at the monkey standing right next to me.

The fact that it was a monkey slowly registered, and I lowered my arms to my arms cautiously, keeping an eye on the monkey in case it tried something. "Jeez, monkey, don't scare me like that," I scolded, frowning disapprovingly, trying my best to imitate my mom's guilt inducing face. I still couldn't be sure whether or not the animals could really understand me or if I was having one very long hallucination, (Or, maybe a long line of very consistent hallucinations. I wasn't sure on that front.) but I was just going to act like they did and accept the fact that I was probably going insane.

The monkey chittered at me. My eyes narrowed. "Did you just call me a doodoo head?" It chittered again, sounding smug. "Oh, don't sound all proud of yourself, it's not even that good of an insult!"

The monkey grinned at me before bending over and scooping something off the ground. I had absolutely no idea what it was doing up until it held up the key. My eyes widened as the monkey insulted me again and quickly ran off, climbing over the gate and back into the zoo, leaving me staring after it blankly.

Several seconds of pure shock later, I shouted, "Oh, come _on_!" I then promptly did my best impression of a donkey and kicked at the lock in frustration.

 _Thunk_.

The lock fell on the ground, broken.

I looked at the lock for a moment, frozen with my leg still in the air. I slowly lowered my leg and pushed the gate open, doing my best to pretend I had planned that from the start, which really wasn't very convincing and was also entirely unnecessary considering there was no one there to see it.

(Wait, I just realized I could've just skipped that bit altogether. Uh… pretend you never read that.)

It only took six steps for me to be found. The burning feeling on the back of my neck was the first warning. The growling coming from behind me was the second.

Turning around slowly, I came face to face with a tiger.

"Hello there," I said weakly, voice shaking. The tiger roared in response, a sound so loud I could hear it echo afterwards. I took my hands off my ears, not even remembering when I had put them there.

I stared at the tiger for a moment, and made an executive decision to hit it and get the heck out. "Oh I am so going to _die_!" I shrieked as I swung my baseball bat.

Surprisingly, the tiger didn't dodge, perhaps because it had a hard time believing I was actually hitting it first - though, I can't really blame it, since I was having a hard time believing it myself. I didn't stop to think about it as I ran as fast as I could.

Even with a head start, the tiger was still faster.

A stab of heat flashed in my leg just moments before I ceremoniously crashed to the ground, face planted directly in the dirt. I raised my head, spitting dirt out of my mouth and wrinkling my nose at the taste, and tried to roll over to see what had tripped - key word being 'tried'.

It was then that I realized there was something holding tightly onto my leg. I had the feeling I knew what it was.

Praying that I was wrong but resigning myself to the fact I probably wasn't, I peeked over my shoulder. Even knowing what to expect, I wasn't ready for the sight of a tiger gnawing merrily on my leg like it was one of Mick's chew toys. My eyes widened as I took it all in, my chest tightening and making it hard to breathe.

In some sick twist of fate, the pain that was, until that point, just dull enough to ignore in favor of other, more important things, decided that it did not like being ignored and ramped itself up to eleven. The unexpected pain tore a scream from my throat as tears welled up in my eyes. I couldn't stop myself from sobbing wetly as the beast behind me bit harshly at my leg. I wondered when the tiger would just get it over with and kill me already.

I could never explain how I knew to do what I did next. Maybe it was instinct, maybe it was the voice in my head taking over for a moment, but something inside of me just knew what to say.

So I said it.

"4th D-slip!"

As soon as I gasped out the words, the oddest thing happened. The tiger's teeth stopped their assault, the growl coming from its chest cut off abruptly. I forced my eyes open and found the world had ground to a halt around me. The grass had stopped moving in the breeze, and a cautious glance behind me found the tiger perfectly still, almost like a statue.

To put it frankly, I had absolutely _no_ clue what was happening, but I most certainly was going to make the most of it.

I eased my leg out of the tiger's mouth as gently as I could, although it still hurt enough to draw an embarrassingly high pitched whine from my throat. As soon as I got it all the way out, I scrambled as fast as I could with a heavily bleeding leg away from the frozen tiger, keeping my bat at the ready and not letting myself take my eyes off of it as I waited for my insanely bad luck to kick in.

It was a smart move on my part, as the world kicked back into motion just then. I slowed my retreat to a crawl as the tiger bit at thin air. It realized what it just did and blinked, confused, before sniffing at the air and turning its eyes toward me. I gulped at the blood on its mouth, the thought that it was mine making me shiver.

The tiger took a step forward before launching itself at me, determined to not let its prey get away. I swung my bat as hard as I could.

You could say I was shocked when the tiger went down fast, falling to the ground in a heap, but it would be a very big understatement. I stared at the tiger, my hands gripping my bat so hard they were starting to ache. My leg decided it wanted attention once more, and I crumpled to the ground a foot away from the tiger.

And then I realized that I had probably just killed another living being.

My eyes darted towards the massive form of the tiger, praying that I would find a sign of life, anything to prove I hadn't just killed it. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, and I looked over, zeroing in on the rising and falling of the animal's chest. It was breathing. I could've melted from the sheer relief right then and there.

 _Of course it isn't dead, Ninten, you dolt,_ I thought to myself. _It's a tiger. It's not going to die from two hits with a baseball bat._

Knowing that it wasn't dead, while relieving, brought about a whole new issue. The tiger was bound to recover sooner or later, and I did not want to be anywhere _near_ it when it did. So, with that in mind, I stood, gritted my teeth against the pain in my leg, and limped away from the tiger, holding out hope that I wouldn't run into any more animals on my way to the faculty building.

Just my luck that the hyenas and a crocodile wanted in on the party, too.

* * *

Let me tell you something about running on an injured leg - it _really_ freaking hurts. Add to that an injured arm (thanks, hyena) and an injured foot (thanks, crocodile) and you can probably understand that I was not doing very well at that point. The weird time stopping superpowers hadn't kicked in the entire time, either - I couldn't remember what I had said to make them work in the first place, and I wasn't even sure if that was real or not.

As soon as I had the door to the manager's office shut behind me, I leaned my whole weight against the door and sank to the floor, unable to hold back a sob of relief as I took my weight off my legs. I couldn't tell you how long I sat there, just barely keeping myself from panicking as I bled over the tiles.

There was no way I could walk all the way back to town with my leg the way it was, but there was no way anyone would come to find me in time, especially since only Pippi, the mayor, and his attendants would have any idea where I was. To put it bluntly, I was screwed, and I knew it.

"I'm going to die," I murmured. "I'm going to die here, alone." The thought was striking. I had never really thought about how I was going to die, but I always assumed it would be doing something awesome or maybe when I was old. I didn't exactly picture dying in a zoo at age 12. I glared at my leg. "This is all your fault, you know."

If only I had run faster, then maybe I wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place. I scowled at the ground, angry at myself for coming here in the first place, angry at the mayor for not listening to me when I said no. But mostly angry at my leg for not getting better faster.

"If I _really_ had superpowers, I bet I could just make my leg better with magic," I sighed. I guess that kinda proved I had just hallucinated the whole thing. "Come _on_ , stop bleeding already, you dumb leg."

 _You know what to say, Ninten. What are you waiting for?_

"I know what to say? Heck no, I've got no clue what to say! I don't have special powers or anything, I'm just a regular guy! I can't just shout some ' _PK Lifeup_ ' nonsense and have my leg magically get better! _People can't do that!_ "

Imagine my face when I noticed my leg hurt less and looked down to see my skin knitting itself back together in fast forward.

"What the heck." I said blankly, unable to even make it into a question. "I can do that now?" I got the distinct sense of smugness coming from the voice. "Oh, shut up. What did I even say? PK Lifeup?"

I watched in awe as the teeth marks on my arm healed in front of my face, and flexed my toes, noting the lack of pain in my foot as well. I beamed. "Okay, I can do that now! I have superpowers, apparently!"

* * *

It didn't take long after my discovery for my head to start pounding as if there was a entire crew of tap dancers inside my brain performing their single most intricate routine on repeat. This drew a startled yelp and another faceplant, this time up the stairs I had been marching up, still giddy over my new ability.

"Okay, I get it," I said, my voice muffled by the floor. "There are side effects and stuff. Should've known…" I lifted myself up, getting back to my feet and wincing as my headache protested the movement. I ignored the throbbing in my head as much as I could, continuing up the stairs, in hopes of finding a safe place to collapse and take a nap. The first several rooms I had already tried had chairs that were at least semi-comfortable, but they also had some severe rat infestations, so I was taking the search up to the third floor.

The search promptly got called off when I opened the first door on my left to find a giant floating capsule that was flashing red and blue.

"Uh, what?" I muttered, taking a step closer. Yeah, you can probably tell that was a bad idea.

The capsule split in half, a white flash forcing my eyes shut. When I opened them, blinking away the afterimage, something had changed. A star shaped alien looking thing was standing where the capsule was, arm stubs perched on its hips.

"What is that?" I breathed, not even registering I was saying them until I had already finished the words.

 _Starman,_ the voice whispered.

The newly named Starman stood still as a glowing yellow light quickly gathered near its chest before streaking towards me. My eyes widened as time seemed to slow around me, letting me take a good look at the object that was sure to be my killer. No magic could get me out of this once, and the fear had me petrified.

The beam struck true, right into my chest, but I didn't feel any pain. Is death just that painless? I was immediately proven wrong as the beam suddenly bounced off of my chest, its path redirected and leaving a scorch mark on the wall instead. I looked down, wondering what the heck had made it reflect like and, and noticed a shine emitting from inside my pocket. On instinct, I shoved my hand inside, not remembering what was even in there, and pulled out the Franklin badge that Pippi had given me.

"Since when can this thing reflect beams?" I asked loudly. The Starman beeped loudly at me, which served as a nice little reminder that I was still in danger and should probably do something about it. It also simultaneously brought up the question of whether it was an alien or a robot, but I didn't linger on the topic, instead choosing to dive to the side when the Starman came rocketing towards me. The strangest thing was how it hadn't moved from its position even as it charged forwards, so it kind of looked like it was sliding, which actually looked kinda ridiculous.

I rolled to my feet, grabbing at my bat's handle and whipping it around in one smooth motion, clocking the Starman right in the head with a loud _clang!_ I grinned, feeling proud of myself, but I probably shouldn't have been, because right then the Starman recovered quicker than I thought it would and came at me a second time. Unprepared, I squeaked in a way that we will _never_ bring up in front of anyone else, and the Starman rammed right into me.

Pain erupted in my stomach as I fell to the ground, momentum causing me to slide at least two feet away from the Starman, which then made some beeps and boops that actually sounded kind of condescending. Clenching my jaw, I used my bat as a crutch to get to my feet, and planted my feet firmly on the ground, determined to not let it happen again.

This time, when the Starman barreled toward me, I hopped to the side and raised my bat, bashing the alien robot's head again. I didn't try to go for a second swing, opting to quickly distance myself before the thing could charge again.

Things were looking a little brighter at that point, and the fight continued as if scripted, the Starman refusing to change tactics and me constantly taking advantage of the fact. By the fifth round, though, I was rather annoyed. Doing the same thing over and over again was getting boring, and it was all I could do to refrain from flat out grumbling as I wheeled my arm back, winding up for yet another hit. When I swung the bat, it felt almost like someone else was swinging it with me, and it went smashing into the Starman's helmet with an extraordinary amount of force.

And finally, _finally_ , the Starman was phased by it. The strange being let out a shrill beep, and the capsule pieces from before flashed back into existence, one on each side of the Starman. The two pieces shot towards each other with the Starman right in the middle, and I had to once again shut my eyes against a bright light. When I opened my eyes, the capsule was whole, the Starman nowhere in sight. I watched as the capsule floated away from me, phasing through the wall entirely, and the tension faded with a sigh as it took the danger away with it.

I shoved my bat back into my bag, glancing around the room for the first actual time - and what do my eyes center on but a large, rather comfy looking chair in front of a table. I smiled, the adrenaline quickly draining and reminding me of my headache and tired eyes. "Don't mind if I do."

I was asleep as soon as I sat down.

* * *

 **okay. i said it would take less time than last time and. 6 months is _technically_ an improvement, right?**

 **alright, what happened was i started pretty much right after chapter 3 went up, but then stalled for several months for no real reason. then i went on a mad rush writing pretty much the entire chapter in the past month or so. also, this chapter is the longest yet! hooray, i guess!**

 **i'm still not sure if the warning was necessary in the beginning but i put it up just to be safe. i tried my best with the fight scenes but i'm not sure how well they really came out, but i've never really written any fights before so that's understandable i guess.**

 **please point out any mistakes you find! thanks for reading!**


End file.
